MOZAMBIQUE--DESCRIPTION OF THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY--SLAVE-TRADE--HOW
CARRIED ON--PREPARE FOR MY EXPEDITION INTO THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA--BIGG
AND I LAND--TRANSFORMED INTO BLACKAMORES--FORTUNATE SHOT AT AN
ELEPHANT--MEET NATIVES--FEAST OFF THE ELEPHANT--SEARCH FOR WATER--AN
UNWELCOME VISITOR--A NIGHT IN AN AFRICAN DESERT.
I was glad to get away from the spot where the catastrophe I have
described occurred, but it was very, very long before I could get the
scenes I had witnessed out of my head. How different would have been
the fate of Sills had he been guided wisely, instead of foolishly, and
endeavoured by every means in his power to perform his duty. We first
made sail for Mozambique, where Captain Armstrong had to communicate
with the governor to arrange a plan for the suppression of the
slave-trade. Mozambique belongs to the Portuguese. It is the chief of
their settlements on the east coast of Africa. They claim the whole
coast from Cape Delgado in the north, situated in about eleven degrees
south latitude, to Delagoa Bay, which will be found at about the
twenty-sixth degree south latitude; an extent of nine hundred miles in
length, but reaching, I fancy, a very little way inland. Their
authority does not in reality exist except at their fortified ports and
towns. We brought up in an extensive harbour before the city of
Mozambique, which stands on an island of the same name. This island
with two others, Saint Jago and Saint George, and the mainland, form the
confines of the harbour, and shelter the vessels riding between them
from every wind.
I and several of the officers landed with Captain Armstrong, who wished
to communicate with the governor-general. It was said that he was very
anxious to suppress the slave-trade, but that he was actually
intimidated by the slave-dealing community.
The island is defended by two forts, and we heard that the guns had been
dismounted and sent to Portugal, in order that should the place be
captured by the natives, it might be the more easily retaken by the
slave-dealers. We were not prepared to find so handsome a city as
Mozambique is in many respects. We landed at a fine wharf built of the
most massive masonry. The palace of the governor-general is a handsome
building, erected round a court-yard, with lofty rooms and floors of
timber. The roof is flat, and covered entirely with lead. The floors
of most of the other houses are of chunam, or lime. All the houses are
very substantially built, for the sake of coolness; and many of them
look as if at one time they may have been comfortable abodes when the
slave-trade flourished, and they were inhabited by the principal
slave-dealers in the place. The town is irregularly built; the streets
are narrow; there are two large churches and several chapels, and two or
three squares, with fair-sized houses round them. As we were passing
through the principal one, we observed a pillar of wood fixed in a mass
of masonry. We inquired its object, and were told that it is used for
securing the negroes when they are ordered to be publicly whipped. I
have little more to say about the city of Mozambique, except to remark
that it is difficult to conceive how civilised beings can allow the
place they live in to be kept in so very dirty a condition. The truth
is, that the blighting influence of slave-dealing affects every one,
from the highest to the lowest Portuguese; and their whole thoughts are
taken up in the consideration of how they can in the greatest degree
benefit directly or remotely by it. While the Portuguese government
persists in sending out ruined men to govern the country, or under-paid
officers, they cannot wash away the stigma which now rests on them of
wishing to support the slave-trade in spite of treaties, and their
promises to put a stop to it. There are about two hundred white
soldiers in the place, all of them convicts, and some doubly convicted
of the worst of crimes. There are certain government officials and some
foreign merchants, Germans, banyan traders, Arabs, and others; and all
the rest of the inhabitants are negroes and slaves, or, as the
Portuguese call them, Gentiles. Altogether there was nothing attractive
in the place, and we were very glad that we had not to remain there.
As we stood down the coast we touched at another Portuguese settlement,
that of Inhambane. The town, though it has been established nearly
three hundred years, is a miserable place. It consists of about a
hundred and fifty ill-built houses, thatched chiefly with the broad
leaves of the cocoanut tree, posted generally along the margin of the
harbour, but some of them can be seen peeping out here and there between
the mangrove bushes or cocoa-nut trees along the beach. There is a
fort, the garrison of which consists of some sixty convicts, sent from
Goa to Mozambique, and then, after further misbehaving themselves, sent
on to this place, so their character may well be supposed. There is a
church, but it is in a very ruinous condition. Altogether the place is
a very miserable one, and is evidently withering under the blighting
curse of the slave-trade. The huts of the natives are built in a square
form, instead of round, like those to be seen further south. We heard
that the natural productions of the country in the interior are very
abundant. Among them are indigo, coffee, cotton, trees producing
India-rubber, bananas, plantains, oranges, lemons; the natives collect
gold and ivory; amber and turtle are found on the shore, while all sorts
of fish and the sperm whale exist off the coast. But the slave-trade,
by encouraging international wars, effectually prevents the development
of all these numerous resources, and will prevent them as long as it is
allowed to exist.
We were now approaching the spot whence Bigg told me that he had made
his escape. My heart beat more anxiously than ever as I thought of the
possibility of soon rescuing poor Alfred. I thought of all he had
suffered, of his long banishment from civilised society, and of the
hopeless condition to which he must have been reduced when deserted by
his companion in slavery. I, of course, could think of nothing else,
and my only satisfaction was in being employed in making preparations
for our expedition on shore. Johnny Spratt was very anxious to
accompany us, and so was little Tommy Bigg.
"He might be of use dressed up as a little nigger," I heard his father
remark. "But I don't know; the risk may be very great, and though I
wouldn't grudge it for the sake of serving young Mr Marsden, I think we
may do very well without him."
On hearing this I begged that Tommy might on no account accompany us,
but I determined to take Solon. We weighed the advantages against the
disadvantages in so doing. He might certainly make the natives suppose
that we were not negroes by his foreign appearance, he being so unlike
any dogs they have; but then, it might appear probable that he might
have been obtained from some slaver or vessel wrecked on the coast. He
might possibly also remember Alfred, or Alfred might see that he was an
English dog, and call him and talk to him. To have a further chance of
communicating with Alfred, I wrote a note telling him that I was looking
for him, that the _Star_ was off the coast ready to receive him on
board, and urging him to endeavour to make his escape without delay. I
wrote also to the same effect on an immense number of bits of paper,
which I proposed to fasten to all the trinkets, and knives, and
handkerchiefs, and other articles which the natives value, which I could
obtain on board, in the hopes that one of them might fall into Alfred's
hands, and that he might thus know that efforts were making for his
liberation.
The appearance of the coast as we stood along it was not attractive.
Beyond a white sandy beach, which looked glittering and scorching hot in
the sun, the ground rose slightly, fringed on the upper ridge by low,
stunted trees bending towards the south-west, exhibiting proofs of the
force of the hurricanes, which blow down the Mozambique Channel from the
north-east. Talking of the hurricanes which prevail hereabouts, I ought
to have mentioned that it was during one of them in this channel that
the poet Falconer, whose deeply interesting poem of "The Shipwreck" had
been a great favourite with Alfred and me, lost his life. The ship in
which he sailed as purser foundered, and he, and I believe everybody on
board, perished. No work, either in prose or poetry, so admirably, so
graphically, and so truly describes a shipwreck as does his. It is
curious that after its publication he should have lost his life amid the
scene which he has so perfectly described. In the same way no writer
has more vividly painted the horrors of a fire at sea than Mr Eliot
Warburton, in the last work he wrote, just before embarking for the West
Indies. But a few days afterwards he perished by the burning of the
steamer on board which he sailed.
We were looking out anxiously for the bay, which Bigg believed he could
recognise again. Mr Henley knew the coast generally, but he had been
unable, from Bigg's description, to fix on the exact spot. We looked
into two or three places which somewhat answered the description, but
had to stand out again. At last we ran into a little bay, which Bigg
said he was positive was the one in which the Arab dhow lay when he got
on board her. Accordingly we stood in and brought up. No people could
have been kinder to me than Captain Armstrong and all his officers were
while I was preparing for my expedition.
"I might employ force, and endeavour to compel the natives to give up
your brother, but they might declare that they knew nothing about him,
and of course, with my whole ship's company, I could effect but little
against the hosts they could bring against us," he remarked, as he was
speaking on the subject. "Your pacific plan is far more likely to
succeed. At the same time, should you find yourself discovered and
placed in difficulties, you may threaten the natives with all the
vengeance which the _Star_ and her ship's company can inflict on them."
The boat was lowered to carry old Tom Bigg and me to the shore. I was
fully aware of all the risk I was running, and though I was full of
hope, I could not help feeling sad as I wished Mr Henley and all my
kind friends on board goodbye. Our various articles were done compactly
up in cases, that we might carry them on our backs. I had my trusty
rifle, which I covered up carefully, so that what it was might not be
seen. My ammunition belt I fastened round my waist, under my shirt, and
in it I stuck a brace of small pistols, lent me by one of the officers.
Bigg was armed with pistols and a stout stick. I had on a flannel
waistcoat, and drawers tucked lightly up, and a loose shirt over all.
The ship's barber had tightly curled my hair, and Bigg said he knew
exactly where to find the berries with which he proposed dyeing our
skins. I had been going about without shoes or socks since I resolved
on the expedition, that I might harden my feet; indeed, since I had come
to sea I had very frequently gone without them; at the same time I
expected to suffer more inconvenience at having to travel through the
bush with bare feet than from any other cause. Still, of course, I
should at once have been discovered had I worn shoes, or even sandals.
All the officers wished me success as I stepped into the boat, and
seemed to take a great interest in my proceedings. We looked anxiously
out to discover if we were watched as we pulled towards the shore, but
we saw no natives, and we had great hopes that we had not been observed.
Old Bigg took an affectionate farewell of Tommy as he sprang out of the
boat, and Mr Henley, who had accompanied us, cordially grasped my hand
as I stood up to leap on shore.
"May Heaven guide and prosper you. This is an enterprise for the
success of which I can heartily pray, and I never wish a friend of mine
to undertake any for which heartfelt prayers cannot be offered up."